Be there as a cruise ship model will be created
Welcome to the Mein Schiff 3 construction blog! First of all I would like to thank you for your interest and I hope to entertain and inspire you a bit with the blog. At this point I would also like to thank my beloved wife and my children, who tolerate the construction of the ship and hopefully can also get a little excited about the model. The idea I already had the idea for this ship before I received a 3D printer. In 2021 I had the idea of wanting to build a large model of Mein Schiff 3. I had already measured a shelf and came to the conclusion that the model should not be longer than 2 meters. Above all, because the height of the 2m model would otherwise have been too high to be able to stand in the planned place. I also decided on such a size, because as many details as possible can be preserved. The smaller a model gets, the more detail is lost. Since I don't have a workshop where I can saw out frames and glue them together, the classic variant of model building was not possible. I checked online for other options. Here I came across the manufacture of the model using GRP. However, this required the production of a negative mold. This also required a workshop to process a 2m long styrofoam block, which I would have had to grind into the shape of the ship's hull in order to then apply the GRP mats using epoxy resin. This variant also failed because I could not have imagined, as a beginner, that I could have produced an exactly symmetrical hull shape - and still without a workshop or craft room. In my research, I haven't seen much about 3D printing of ship models. This seems to have somehow slipped past the model builders. I started thinking about the 3D printing of ships and came to the conclusion relatively quickly that it must be feasible in principle. First steps in 3D Designer After I decided that the model should be built on the printer, I started building the model on the PC. Before I could draw the first lines, however, I first had to deal with the open source 3D designer "BLENDER". I also decided to do this because the program is one of the most powerful free 3D designers. It was also similar to older programs I had worked with in the past.
After watching a few short introductory videos on YouTube, I started designing the fuselage. Since there are no blueprints of the ship online and TUI-Cruises or the Meyer shipyard will certainly not publish any blueprints, my browser was covered with what felt like 1000 tabs full of Google images of Mein Schiff 3. Since I was still relatively inexperienced with the 3D designer, the first steps were difficult. Nevertheless, I was able to create a ship's hull that is true to the original after a long, painstaking work.
I still didn't have a 3D printer, which is why the drive to continue building the model dwindled. This was also due to the lack of experience with BLENDER. The project began to fall asleep.
A 3D printer is comming home
In spring 2022 I received a 3D printer. Indeed, this 3D printer fell into my hands. A relative bought a 3D printer and couldn't get it to work. I was asked if I was interested in this printer and I immediately said so.
The 3D printer is a DIY printer. Specifically, the CTC Prusa i3 DIY. This printer is delivered in parts and must be assembled and finally adjusted by the user. After the printer was finally set up to print properly, the actual printing could begin. I first got involved with printing somewhat trivial parts. Thanks to the printer - by the way, many thanks again to the noble donor - the Mein Schiff 3 project came to life again. I dug up the 3D model of the hull from the depths of my PC. My internet browser was once again peppered with thousands of images of Mein Schiff 3 from every imaginable direction. In the water, in the dock... The ship or the ship's hull suddenly took on more and more shape, received windows and everything that belonged to the ship's hull. The project was now picking up speed as I couldn't wait to print the first parts.
The next part continues with the first printing tests and what happened to them...
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